The present invention relates to power tools, and in particular to a building construction tool for installing fasteners, drilling holes, and performing other similar operations in remote structures, such as overhead beams and trusses.
One popular type of building construction for commercial structures is known in the trade as a "hung" ceiling, wherein relatively high, overhead steel beams or trusses support ribbed or corrugated ceiling panels. An asphalt roof, or other similar structure, covers the exterior side of the ceiling panels to form a watertight roof surface.
In this type of building construction, as well as others incorporating the same general concept, the finished ceiling, as well as many other mechanics for the building, such as plumbing, fire sprinkler lines, heating and cooling ducts, lighting, etc., are suspended overhead from the trusses and/or ceiling panels. The utilities are typically attached to the building roof by wire or chain hangers.
Heretofore, wire hangers have been installed in such construction arrangements by punching a hole through the sides of the ceiling panel rib, inserting the free end of the hanger through the punched holes, and wrapping it around the depending portion of the hanger. The lower end of the hanger is then connected with the object to be supported. In such installations, the installer is required to stand on a ladder or scaffolding to perform this task, and must continually move the support along with his work. The wire wrapping technique described above is quite tedious and time consuming, and generally must be performed at a rather unsafe height. If existing heating ducts, pipes, or the like, are in the way of the desired positioning of the hanger, it is very difficult to anchor the upper end of the hanger in the ceiling. For instance, when large heating and cooling ducts are disposed directly above the desired location of the hanger, the installer must crawl on top of the ducts and attach the hanger to the ceiling, and then thread it down between the ducts. In like manner, the installation of fasteners, and/or formation of apertures in other types of remotely positioned structures, such as underwater objects, laterally inaccessible structures, and the like, present problems similar to those set forth above, and are contemplated by the present invention.